This week, in Cleaning Up The Mess Guardian Media’s on going guest series examining environmental issues in T&T Ramgopaul Roop, a sustainable agricultural development specialist, member of the T&T Agribusiness Association and Agricultural Entrepreneur of The Year 2001 tells of how agriculture can mitigate against environmental issues by implementing sustainable developmental practices.

Agriculture is a dominant occupational sector in the global economy which is challenged to ensure food security for an increasing population (averaging 100 million people a year) in an environment of climate change, urbanisation and the water-food-energy nexus. Inappropriate agricultural practices and land use have adverse impact on natural resources, such as land degradation and decline in soil fertility and pollution of soil, water and air, fragmentation of habitats and loss of wildlife.

In the T&T Guardian’s ongoing series examining environmental issues, Alexander Carius, co-founder and managing director of  Adelphi and international consultant and adviser on climate change and Dennis Taenzler, head, climate and energy policies at Adelphi, expert in climate, energy and international environmental policy, are featured in the second of a two-part series.

The guest columns coincide with their presentation last week at the University of the West Indies seminar, Climate Diplomacy – A Foreign Policy Challenge: Reducing Risks for Security, staged at the Learning Resource Centre, UWI, St Augustine. It was a collaborative effort between the German Embassy in Port-of-Spain and UWI’s Department of Behavioural Sciences.

The German Government has committed more than 15 million euros (approximately $120 million) to climate projects in the region so far. They deal with the adaption to Climate Change in the Caribbean for the protection of natural resources and diversification in agriculture and forestry as well as the management of coastal marine areas.

A pilot programme for integrative adaptation strategies is underway in Grenada. The embassy says more projects are planned as renewable energy and adaptation to climate change are now on the forefront of German economic co-operation with the Caribbean.

This week in Guardian Media guest series examining environmental issues in T&T Cleaning Up The Mess, Alexander Carius co-founder and managing director of Adelphi, international consultant and adviser on climate change, and Dennis Taenzler head of climate and energy Policies at Adelphi and expert in climate, energy and international environmental policy are our joint guest columnists in a two-part series.

This week in Guardian Media’s ongoing guest series Cleaning Up The Mess, examining environmental issues in T&T, The Global Environment Facility (GEP) tells us the inspiring story of the Speyside Eco Marine Park Rangers, a group who decided to take action to stem the decline of the eco-system in their community.

Jace Bishop and Rupert “Smokey” McKenna are lead members of the Speyside Eco Marine Park Rangers (SEMPR). Their dedication, action and words are their weapons. They tell the breathless story of dramatic decline of eco-system health in their community and the group’s struggle to create awareness and make a difference.

Founded in 2009 by residents of Speyside, SEMPR has made gigantic steps, transforming from a small group initially shunned in the community to a household name. Group members like, David John, Damien Kent, Stephan Skeete, Giselle Alexander, and Zelani Frank are working to make a positive change in a society that is afraid of change, afraid of facing the frightening reality that nothing is as it used to be.

This week in Cleaning Up The Mess, the ongoing guest series examining environmental issues in T&T, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) reveals how one professional association is volunteering its expertise to an environmental cause. In last week’s column we learned of the work of the St James Empowerment Foundation (SJEF), a committed group of everyday citizens concerned enough about their community’s fragile eco-system to do something about it.

Over the last seven months they have implemented various components of their waste management project, designed to improve waste disposal and collection in the hillside villages of Upper Bournes Road, St James. Specially designed waste collection units to be placed in three key locations—Godfrey Street, Backstreet, Woodbine Estate and Second Rossland—are a critical component of this GEF, SGP UNDP funded project. Their design and construction would not have been possible without the help of dedicated professionals from the Association of Engineering Professionals of Trinidad and Tobago (APETT).

In July this year thousands of leatherback turtle eggs and hatchlings were crushed when the Ministry of Works entered the beach with bulldozers to move waterlogged sand from key nesting areas. This is the third and final column in a series by guest columnist Cathal Healy-Singh, an environmental engineer with over twenty years of diverse experience who concludes his series on exactly where we went wrong..

The leatherback turtle population worldwide is rated as “critically endangered” based on “observed, estimated, inferred or suspected reduction of at least 80% over the last ten years or three generations, whichever is the longer” (Widecast, on EMA’s Web site).  Widecast also states that in Trinidad, “unique threats also include ‘Gillnetting’—suspended fishing nets in the sea, that cause some 3,000 entanglements of turtles of which one-third result in mortality (Nature Seekers, Dennis Sammy). Widecast also lists “increasing oil exploration activities off the east and north coasts,” as a unique threat to leatherback turtles.

In July this year thousands of leatherback turtle eggs and hatchlings were crushed when the Ministry of Works entered the beach with bulldozers to move waterlogged sand from key nesting areas. This is the second in a three-part series by guest columnist Cathal Healy-Singh, an environmental engineer with over twenty years of diverse experience, who continues his examination on where we went wrong.

The credibility of longstanding Grande Riviere eco-hotelier, Piero Guerrini was questioned, as was that of the EMA itself and indeed of the national character of Trinidadians towards endangered species. An investigation of Piero reveals that he has championed the protection of turtle nesting at Grand Riviere for many years. He opened Mt Plaisir in 1994, a very small, low-impact hotel and went on to receive an award for entrepreneur of the year in 1998. A 2007 UNDP case study of Mt Plaisir referred to Piero’s “avid involvement in the protection of this endangered species.
According to the study, “more than 6,000 people purchased permits to see the turtles during their nesting season in 2005.

In July this year thousands of leatherback turtle eggs and hatchlings were crushed when the Ministry of Works (Drainage Division) entered the beach with bulldozers to move waterlogged sand from key nesting areas.  They said it was necessary to redirect a river which was eroding the beach and threatening a hotel used by tourists to watch the turtles.  Environmentalists, however, say the Government workers botched the job and destroyed some 20,000 eggs. Starting this week CATHAL HEALY-SINGH, an environmental engineer with over 20 years of diverse experience is our guest columnist for a three-part series where he examines exactly where we went wrong.